Digital divide: Just an hour from Gig City, rural residents live in broadband desert

In the shadow of “Gig City,” Chattanooga (TN), there are hundreds of people -- nearly all in rural areas -- who can't access even basic broadband Internet.

"It is a tale of two districts," said Corey Johns, executive director of Connected Tennessee, a statewide organization that tracks and works to improve broadband coverage in Tennessee. About 8 percent of Tennessee's households have no access to broadband, according to Connected Tennessee. In Northwest Georgia, about 5 percent of households are unserved, the Georgia Technology Association reports.

In a world where everything from college classes to paying bills is done online, the lack of access spells trouble for rural areas, Polk County Executive Hoyt Firestone said. "It's not a luxury," he said. "Broadband is a necessity in today's environment. It's today's pathway for economic development. Just like the highway improvement acts and the interstate system -- Internet service can do that for telecommunications. If we can't acquire the same service as the larger urban areas, we're going to fall way behind."

Yet despite potential customers who are practically begging for Internet providers to expand to their areas, the big players so far haven't pulled the trigger on very rural broadband. That's because it's hard to make a profit on rural lines, said Mark Wigfield, Federal Communications Commission spokesman.